Category: United States News

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has stopped talking to US President Barack Obama on the phone, amid growing strains between Ankara and Washington over Syria and the Gaza conflict.
Turkey, a fierce opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and an open supporter of armed rebel fighters, felt betrayed when the United States backed away from military action against Damascus in September.

Iraq Veteran Darin Walker sustained a serious back injury during a tour in Iraq. West Lafayette. The VA paid for Walkers back surgery but declined to pay for physical therapy recommended by his surgeon and did not provide him with counseling. Walker acquired his ducks after he heard the idea of using ducks as therapy.

“Taking care of them is both mental and physical therapy,” he said. “(Watching them) keeps you entertained for hours at a time.”

A federal judge in Cincinnati has allowed a lawsuit by 10 tea party groups to move forward against the Internal Revenue Service. Lead attorney for tea party groups Edward Greim said, “When an officer of the federal government does something that’s unconstitutional and they do it with the right level of intent — and we think the evidence here establishes that these individuals did — we think they should be held to answer for their conduct.”

A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit by 10 tea party groups to move forward against the Internal Revenue Service, rejecting a request by the federal government to dismiss all the allegations that the agency subjected conservative groups to additional, often burdensome scrutiny. In her ruling Thursday, Judge Susan Dlott allowed two of the tea party groups’ claims — including that the IRS discriminated and retaliated against them based on their views in violation of their free speech rights — to survive to trial.

The Cincinnati-based Dlott did dismiss a third claim, ruling the tea party groups could not pursue allegations of privacy violations on behalf of their individual members. The individuals themselves have to do that, she said.

13 elite U.S. firefighters flew in from L.A., Washington and Texas arriving in Israel to help combat rocked-induced fires. 30 more elite U.S. firefighters are to arrive later.

A delegation of 13 elite U.S. firefighters arrived in Israel to help with the fires set by Hamas rocket attacks.

Affiliated with a group called the Emergency Volunteer Project, the firemen came to help their Israeli counterparts deal with ongoing Hamas rocket attacks in towns and cities in the south, such as Sderot, YNet correspondent Eitan Glickman reported.

These senior firefighters took part in search and rescue missions following the 9/11 terror attacks on Manhattan’s World Trade Center.

“We were all part of the massive tragedy that was 9/11. There we undertook search and rescue missions,” fireman Billy Hearst from Texas told YNet.

The Pew Survey asked Americans to rate religions on a “feeling thermometer” scale from 0 to 100, with 0 being the coldest most negative and 100 being the warmest positive rating.

Jews(63), Catholics(62), and Evangelicals(61) were rated the most warmly religious groups in America, while Atheists(41) and Muslims(40) were rated least favorably.

When it came to attitudes among religious groups toward each other, Catholics and Evangelical Christians viewed each other warmly. Evangelicals hold Jews in a positive view(69). Jews gave Evangelicals a much cooler rating (34), which is lower than the Jews’ rating toward Muslins(35).

Partisan politics played a role in views of religious groups. Republicans gave a very high rating to Evangelicals, 71, to Jews, 67, and to Catholics, 66, with the lowest ratings to Atheists, 34, and to Muslims, 33.

Democrats rated Jews the highest at 62, Catholics at 61, Evangelicals at 53, Muslims at 47, Atheists at 46, and Mormons the lowest rating at 44. Jews scored well on both sides of the political aisle. With the exception of Jews, the non-Christian groups receive warmer ratings from Democrats than Republicans.

Homosexual rights groups withdraw support (later ACLU withdrew support also) of ENDA because it won’t oppress Christians after the Supreme Court Hobby Lobby ruling and coupled with a letter religious leaders sent last week to the White House.

The U.S. has been invaded by more than 290,000 illegal immigrants from Central America. About 240,000 consists of many mothers and young children and more than 50,000 unaccompanied youths. The feeding and transporting by the government of all those illegal immigrants is very organized. The move of over 290,000 illegal immigrants from the border into other states seems well planned and organized. Half of the 50,000 Central American youths were processed and delivered directly to their parents now living in the United States. DailyCaller

But still this great organization from an amateurish administration that messes up almost everything. Three years to get the Heathcare web site up and running; botched. Years to fix the VA; botched. Transport , feed, and open up sites to house hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, find the parents of tens of thousands of illegal immigrant youths and transport them to their parents; very organized and not a hitch. Amazing!

Vassar, Michigan is a small town with a population around 2,697. The U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. General Services Administration are looking at a juvenile facility in Vassar to house illegal immigrant children from Central America. the Detroit News reported.

The Common Core State Standards is barren of civics and social studies. The national civics assessment was last administered in 2010. Last year the US Education Department canceled the American history and civics tests within the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The mindset of “not tested, not taught” will diminish over time civics and history education. Civics and social studies is an intergral part of a comprehensive education.

Teaching citizenship has always been a core purpose of public schools, yet government requirements are now focusing achievement goals on math and reading. The importance of civics and US history in the classroom is in fast decline.

New York and 40-plus other states have signed on to the Common Core State Standards, whose content standards focus exclusively on English and math. That means teachers and policymakers will need to take steps to ensure that the teaching of US history and civics doesn’t continue to slide.

A general disregard for our national heritage is trickling down through the system. Measurements by the federal Education Department and private groups have consistently found American students’ basic knowledge of US history to be sorely lacking and getting worse over time.

An important place to start, as many public-school classrooms do, is with the Pledge of Allegiance. Happily, the Pledge prevailed in its latest legal battles in courts when the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled in favor of its use as a patriotic oath.

But while most students recite the Pledge daily, their understanding of their own history and civic engagement fails.

NiSource, Inc, a Fortune 500 company, which operates in Ohio told the Home School Legal Defense Association that it will not be hiring homeschooled graduates.

Charisma News pointed out the reply to the Home School Legal Defense Association was in response to letters attempting to resolve a dispute over a particular job applicant. NiSource withdrew the job offer upon learning the applicant was homeschooled.

The job applicant was well-qualified. “In addition to graduating from home-school in compliance with Ohio law, this applicant had years of relevant job experience and several key industry certifications. During his last two years of high school the applicant took seven courses at a recognized state college and made the dean’s list.”

Ken Ham points out it could be a worldview issue. It doesn’t matter the qualifications but whether the person is “indoctrinated into the worldview dictated by the state.”